Last year Traynor teamed up with Grape Crush to bring a custom lineup of wines to life, while supporting local BIPOC artists. A portion of the sales from these wines went back into the local BIPOC community through various organizations based in Toronto. Both Traynor and Grape Crush feel strongly about using their positions to support causes that impact basic human rights for all.
The plan for this year’s collaboration is to continue working with local BIPOC artists, however when coming up with concepts, the war in Ukraine broke out. The teams knew right away they wanted to support the Ukrainian resistance through this initiative. Realizing it is a global world allows this ongoing series of work to help beyond the immediate community and something the teams are proud of.
Grape Crush was able to get in contact with an emerging Ukrainian artist, Sana Shahmuradova, who currently resides, and is resisting occupation, in Kyiv. The wine is named after the word “Vira”, which is a Ukrainian name that means faith, and is derived from the Latin word for truth. A word both Traynor and Grape Crush feels represents the hope and conviction of the Ukrainian people.
The wine itself is a skin-fermented white blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Riesling. It spent 14 days on skins, while a cool fermentation allowed the development of bright aromatics that include hints of orange peel, honeysuckle, and green tea.
Each purchase of this wine contributes 10% of sales towards Ukrainian volunteer medical and elderly support groups. The wine was originally only supposed to be available at Grape Crush in Toronto, but they had so much support from others in the industry looking to carry the wine themselves.
You can now pick up this wine in Prince Edward County, as well as in and around the GTA and Ottawa:
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Graph Crush, Toronto
- Traynor Family Vineyard, Hillier, Prince Edward County
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Adega PEC, Consecon, Prince Edward County
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The Red Apron, Ottawa
- Martello, Hamilton
The team at Traynor is happy to see such a positive response to this initiative from the community and never imagined it would grow this way. They hope to continue this collaboration with Grape Crush in the future, supporting local and global causes as much as they can.
